Netflix subscribers may have already been brimming with excitement for the streamer’s latest foreign language series One Hundred Years Of Solitude; the Colombian series is based on the beloved 1967 novel of the same name. It centers on the trials and tribulations of a family that spans seven generations, showcasing the resilience of generational bonds, the strength of a tight-knit community and the beauty of rural Colombia. Like many of Latin America’s greatest folk tales, One Hundred Years of Solitude contains traces of magical realism, as well as vague references to the supernatural. Since the ethereal series offers such a heady and vibrant take on the source material, you’d be forgiven if you have a little trouble interpreting the ending of the show, especially because so much of it is meant to be taken in a non-literal way.
Be advised that the following write-up will contain heavy spoilers for all eight episodes of the Netflix original series. As such, feel free to bookmark this page and return at a later date if you’re not fully caught up. Even if you’re not the kind of person who is normally deterred by spoilers, you may find it impossible to follow the naming conventions and tangled, incestuous family tree of the Buendías without having finished the show, so be sure to give it a spin before reading ahead. Those who have finished the show and need some assistance processing it should be certain to press on and see what conclusions we can draw from One Hundred Years of Solitude‘s exciting ending.
What Happens in ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’?
As stated, One Hundred Years of Solitude centers on the Buendía family, who have lived in the fictional city of Macondo for over seven generations. The series opens with the very first members of the family to settle in the area – a pair of cousins named José Arcadio and Úrsula Iguarán. Despite the direct orders of their family, they run away together to elope in an incestuous union. Though Úrsula is in love with her cousin and willing to throw her relationship with the rest of her family away to be with him, she fears that consummating their ill-advised marriage could result in children with health issues and birth defects. To make things even more difficult on the newlyweds, they are haunted by the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, whom José fatally bested in a duel at ten paces.
Searching for greener pastures, more acceptance and a found family of people who won’t know that they’re actual family, José and Úrsula Buendía rush into the wilderness of Colombia. By the time they reach the site that will eventually become Macondo, Úrsula has given birth to a baby boy, named for his father, and has already become pregnant with another child called Aureliano. As José works to build shelter and expand the newfound settlement along the river, he is visited by a man named Melquíades and his band of traveling merchants. Melquíades offers José access to futuristic technology and science, starting him on a path of scientific enlightenment. Despite his newfound passion, José’s obsession with science (specifically the art of alchemy), causes him to withdraw from what little society props up around him.
The Founding and Expansion of Macondo
As the Buendía family continues to grow, so too does their small settlement. By the third episode of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Macondo is a bonafide township, housing several families and a self-sustaining economy bolstered by traveling merchants. The junior José even falls in love with one of the weary traveling women and runs away with her, but not before he is taken advantage of by an adult woman named Pilar Ternera, who becomes pregnant from their tryst. Úrsula spends months venturing into the wilderness in search of her firstborn to no avail, before agreeing to raise her grandson, Arcadio, as her own. As the blended family grows, feral children of Colombia’s swamps begin to establish lives of their own within the borders of Macondo, eventually spreading a plague of insomnia to the previous residents.
The senior José works day and night, collaborating with Melquíades to develop a cure for the plague while also developing the technology of photography and other modern luxuries. Eventually, José manages to cure the entire town, though he becomes enraged when a man named Apolinar Moscote is appointed as magistrate. As the founder and sole provider for Macondo, José feels disrespected that another man would be given the reigns to the town, even though he spends most of his days shut inside his lab. Despite his propensity for being introverted, José rallies a few loyal men and runs Apolinar out of Macondo. As this is going on, José’s son Aureliano falls in love with Apolinar’s daughter Remedios. Before he can ask for her hand in marriage, Aureliano is victimized by the very same predator that took advantage of his brother years earlier, resulting in Pilar once again getting pregnant with a child born of assault.
José Arcadio’s Fate and the Future of the Buendía Family
After Apolinar Moscote returns to Macondo with an army of his own, José Arcadio is forced to accept his rival’s appointment as magistrate. This pains José, though he does find some solace in his son’s happiness, as Aureliano finally gets the chance to marry Remedios. Still, losing his grip on the town he built is a crippling blow to José’s mental health, which only worsens when his best friend and partner in science Melquíades passes away. The entire town mourns for Melquíades, though José descends into madness, and becomes unable to form meaningful relationships or even speak intelligible sentences. Lacking the mental health standards of a modern-day psych ward, the men of Macondo unceremoniously tie José to a chestnut tree and leave him to spend the rest of his days spinning crazed ramblings in the wilderness.
As José’s newly-minted daughter-in-law, Remedios seems to be the only person who still cares for the town’s founder. She serves as a beacon of joy for the Buendía family, and even becomes pregnant with twins – the first kids in the family’s history to be conceived by natural means, rather than incest or deceit. Unfortunately, Remedios falls ill with a blood infection and dies before she can bring these two children into the world. With nobody to tend to his needs, José dies of exposure while tied to the tree, causing a rain of yellow flowers to fall from the sky all over town. A heartbroken Aureliano agrees to raise the child he fathered with Pilar, Aureliano José, though he eventually abandons his son to take up arms in the Colombian civil war. Just when it seems as though there will be no more drama for the Buendía family, the junior José Arcadio emerges from the swamp, having finally renounced his womanizing ways to be with his family.
José Arcadio Jr.’s Tragic End and Aureliano’s Return
With his father dead and his brother sent off to war, José Arcadio Jr. becomes the family patriarch. This is troublesome as he has spent most of his life outside of Macondo, and has become completely disconnected from the town’s politics, culture and economy. He quickly makes an enemy of a group of local farmers who owe a debt to the Buendía family by forcefully taking parcels of their land as payment. When the farmers protest this annexation, and plead that they are behind on production because their sons have been sent to war, José disrespects them further, refusing to budge. Days after he causes this turbulence, José Arcadio Jr. is mysteriously murdered and his killers are never revealed. A man named José Raquel Moncada becomes the new mayor of Macondo after running on a platform of peace and prosperity, marking José’s death the first and only unsolved murder in the town’s history.
Though Macondo experiences a period of prosperity as the Buendía family no longer has a stranglehold on local politics, things take a turn for the worse as the narrative of One Hundred Years of Solitude nears its close. Aureliano returns from war as a seasoned warrior, launching an all-out assault on his homeland for reasons that remain largely unknown. He terrorizes the villagers and kills many of Macondo’s residents, even as his own mother begs him to stop. For Úrsula, this attack solidifies her belief that she and José Sr. doomed their family line by conceiving children through incest. Though she initially feared that her children would be monsters born with horrific physical deformities, Aureliano’s bloodthirsty ways signify that he has become a monster on the inside, turning his back on his very humanity.
How Does ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ End?
(Pablo Vera/AFP via Getty Images)
In the final episode of the series, Aureliano successfully sacks the city of Macondo, executes José Raquel Moncada and returns the land his brother stole to the farmers who rightfully own it. It’s a bloody affair, but not completely without a moral compass, as many of Macondo’s residents flourish in the aftermath of the war. Still, it’s a traumatic event for everyone in the area, perhaps most of all for Úrsula, who feels that she has lost every family member she’s ever truly had. In the end, One Hundred Years of Solitude skips forward several years to showcase the future of each remaining member of the Buendía family. Aureliano eventually signs a peace treaty for Macondo, and spends the rest of his days as a simple jeweler while his remaining nieces, nephews, and children experience further tragedy at the hands of the Buendía family curse.
One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the strongest pieces of art to showcase themes of generational trauma, cyclical history and magical realism, offering a complex look into the way that our ancestors’ choices impact our lives. The Buendía family, born primarily of incest, sexual assault and wedlock, often find themselves mired in tragedy, even when their intentions are pure. For José Sr., this meant building the town from the ground up, saving everyone from a plague and ruling with tenderness, only to have his family, his land, and his mind stripped from him in his final years. José Jr. attempts to break the cycle by leaving Macondo at a young age and marrying outside of the family, though his generational roots in the town call him in his later years, sending him down the exact same path as his late father.
Will There Be a Season 2?
Netflix has confirmed that a second season of One Hundred Years of Solitude is already in production, with another eight episodes already greenlit to round out the narrative of the original novel. This should make perfect sense to those that have read the book, as the conclusion of One Hundred Years of Solitude season one really doesn’t cover the back half of the text. Though it seems that the curse has been fully explored, and the cast of characters has thinned out tremendously with many deaths, there’s still a lot more to unpack about the Buendía family.
For now, there’s been no direct word on a release date for One Hundred Years of Solitude part two, though audiences everywhere are likely grateful to have a brief respite from the insanity and chaos the show presents. If you’re chomping at the bit to see how it all plays out, you’ll just have to wait until 2025 for more, or pick up the original 1967 novel and read ahead.
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